Andrew Hill

Awareness of self from a geographical standpoint. Where do edges and borders meld? Where are they distinctly separately? How does a limb differ from a lane? My work, overall, is almost. It is becoming something. It is early art. I arrive just before the image assimilates into something recognizable. Who am I to the world around me? Where do my edges and borders end? From the dust of the earth…what is our sameness to the land. When does our almost landscape begin or end? What duality do we jettison/embrace? How do we change each other’s shape? The harm we inflict on one another, what trauma, what violence? How do we seep into the into and heal the cracked clay? Where do I end and you begin, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, earth of my earth? Thunder - evidence of lightning or lightning echoing presence. Embracing the mysterious, hugging my ambivalence. What horrors does my unholy hold? How, through Divine Blood, do I continue to achieve wholeness? Blood crying out from the soil of my soul. What pieces of me remain near the gaping opening, the abysmal hole?

These works primarily focus on abstracting the visible world around us and/or manifesting aspects of a world we cannot see. The blending of the two, the seen and unseen realms, present works altogether familiar yet charged with something immaterial and otherworldly. The framing of each window I strive to personify, color and push the work towards the edges through varying palettes. I fiercely ignore incessant shading or oppressive detail. I intentionally allow the colors to speak for themselves, to create form and articulate narrative.

Lost Language was birthed out of my enjoyment of words and letters purely for their aesthetic quality as opposed to their known meaning. I started looking at letters, words and characters entirely for their shape, investigating how I related to their form in any given space. As a result, I have endeavored to create a kind of alphabet of logograms that will span a sizable number. The logograms, produced by the amalgamation of languages from all over the world, are central to the work.

Voice of God is a meditation. It is my prayer that allows color pattern to dictate narrative. The series is intended to emit a variegated vocal arrangement from the Divine. It is work that explores the manifold wisdom of God flattened into a symbol and how large thick-banded color schemes effect each viewer. Are the colors flat and predictable or reverberating and resounding? Does the simplistic yet polychromatic arrangement produce contemplation or distraction? Is the work perceived as purely decorative or reflective.

Drawings, paintings, and photographs that are more figurative or representational in nature.

What happened to First Earth? What was the Harbinger trying to tell us and what happened to this civilization when it came? Generations is the centerpiece of my first-year critique at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) as part of the MFA in Studio Art Low-Residency (MFAST) program. It is a cave painting that gives viewers their first glimpse into the Harbinger and what happened to the world before our world.